The New, Non-improved Me!

Really, this is more of a heads-up to let you all know that I’m going to be doing a small series of blog posts about one of my more recent struggles.

Why the heads-up?

Oh, because I like writing about what I’m going to be writing about…and because this particular topic is one that a lot of people aren’t necessarily comfortable with – and that listof uncomfortable people includes yours truly.

My new posts over the spring season – maybe even continuing on in to summer and fall, who knows? – are going to address one specific change that has taken place in my life over the past two years: my weight loss.

Yikes, I know.

No one wants to talk about that, like, ever. But therein lies the problem, guys. No one normal ever wants to talk about their weight. It’s just crazy health nuts, gym rats, and people with disorders (past or present). Not to mention the holier-than-thou people who just happen to be blessedwith awesome genes.

And do you know where reading all of that crap gets you as a busy person with a 9-5+ job and a legit social life? Nowhere.Because the truth is that what works for one person’s body isn’t going to work the sameway for another person. Not a diet, not a workout, not even a way of tracking what you’re putting in and working out.

It’s like, the difference between Globo Gym thinking and Average Joe’s thinking.

We’re snowflakes, not Barbies. We all need something a little bit different to get what we want. And at different points in our lives, we need different plans, too! Nothing ever actually stays the exact same.

I didn’t lose 70 pounds in a year and a half by following someone else’s formula. I started with one, adapted it to fit me, kept changing it as I went along, and here’s the approximate difference, digitally rendered by the magic of technology.

Yeah, I’m never going to wear a bikini, but you get the idea, right? It makes my point.

A standardized formula isn’t going to work the same way for different people. But so many believe that it will! I’m even guilty of judging my friends’ health choices, even though I tend to judge by saying, “Don’t you think that’s a little extreme?”

Sure, for me it might be, but for them, maybe it works! But because I assume that I know what’s good or bad for people just because I know what’s good or bad for me, I’m alwaysgoing to doubt their choices. And that, my friends, is only a small sliver of what’s wrong with the way that we look at body types, body image, and personal health in our country.

If only it were just the judging, we could take of it, but there’s so much more. It’s a million little thingsthat I’ll be talking about with these posts that need to change for our society to have a truly healthy attitude toward our bodies and health. All those little things lead to misconceptions and false perspectives that just bring people down, no matter what they look like or who they are.

That’s why I don’t actually believe the title I’ve stuck up on today’s post. I don’t believe that this “new me” isn’t an improvement. And I’m not talking about the health aspect, I’m talking about aesthetics. People can tell me all day that I was always pretty and I won’t believe it, because in the end, I look at my old photos and flinch. Add to that all the people telling me how much better I look or treating me so, so differently that it’s clear they have a problem with fat people. Or the fact that no matter how much work I do, I’ll never look like people on TV or in the ads.

A million little things, guys. Just like everyone else, I’m still a work in progress, which is kind of the point of these posts – to document my journey. There’s so much to talk about, I just hope that in some of my posts, you’ll find something that clicks with you.